Really Woolly

On Thursday we had our friend, Tony, from Stockport with us. He's a great hill walker. He's bagged all the Munroes and knows the Lakes like the back of his hand. Well, we don't have many hills in Grove, and anyhow my speciality is low-level walking. So he had to make do with one of mine, that is the meander through the estate to Cornerstone, my favourite coffee shop, and back. It was, as they say in the north-west, a manky day. But with coffee and cake in prospect we made it through the murk. While he browse through the books, I looked for a card for a friend who's having a really tough time, and I came across this "Really Woolly" card.

It's from America, and so rather more expressive than we'd tend to be in the UK. You might say it was sentimental, imagining the words of God; but I think sentiment is underrated. After all it basically means "feeling" - which is an important part of human experience. The whole script is based on a psalm:
Dear one of Mine,
I see you need encouragement today.
I actually see you every day, all day.
I'm the One who watches over you
and even planned your birth
a long time before I made the earth or Milky Way.
I couldn't wait to see you born and to see your life unfold.
I love you so much and have since before anything existed.
I've poured out My love on you from heaven above and earth below.
I've poured out my love from a manger and down from a cross.
Both today's enjoyments and today's difficulties are real,
but they are temporary.
Your forever rejoicing will come soon -
when I do.
Until then, know that you are loved,
and let that love fill you with peace this very day.
(Based on Psalm 139.1-18, by Rose Mary Harris © DaySpring Cards Inc)


On the back of the envelope is "The Lord is my shepherd; I have everything I need." Psalm 23:1. I'm hoping my friend will appreciate it. "Difficulties" is hardly an adequate word to describe what she's going through. They are real and no doubt seem interminable, but it's true, they are only temporary, and there is an eternity of being loved - which has already started in the manger and on the cross.